These five easy steps will help you get your new Homeschool Planet online planner set-up and ready for all your homeschool planning needs!

5 Simple Steps To Get Started With Homeschool Planet

While there are a variety of useful features available for your Homeschool Planet planner, these basic steps will allow you to get started quickly and easily. Take the guesswork out of online planning so you can get back to what matters most!

1. Set Up Your School Year

The very first place to start is in setting up your school year calendar. This initial step lays the foundation, and will ultimately allow you to schedule classes, activities, lesson plans, and more.

See step-by-step instructions in the Setting Up A School Year portion of our user guide.

2. Create Family Profiles

Next, you’ll add your family to the planner by creating your Family Profiles. We walk you through the instructions step by step in the Setting Up Family Profiles section of our user guide.

3. Customize Your Background Theme

While not technically required, at this point in the set-up process, we encourage you to customize your planner to a theme and color palate that feels best for you. Get all the details on how to Customize Your Back Ground Theme here.

4. Add An Integrated Lesson Plan (or Begin Adding Your Own)

You have two dynamic options for lesson planning with Homeschool Planet.

#1 – You can add one of our plug-in, integrated lesson plans. Plan out your entire year in just minutes with over 3,200 current plans from popular homeschool curriculum programs. New plans added to our Lesson Plan Marketplace every month.

Learn how to Add A Plug-In Lesson Plan in this section of our user guide.

#2 – If you prefer to be a bit more eclectic in your approach, or use a curriculum not available in our marketplace, you can also easily set-up your own lesson plans in your planner! Check out our videos about how to Create a Lesson Plan and how to use our Assignment Generator.

Or, you may choose to do a combination of the above to create a personalized, robust learning plan for your homeschool.

5. Make Changes To Your School Calendar As Needed

Because homeschooling happens in the reality of our day to day lives, our planner is designed to easily flex to accommodate changes in your schedule. Learn how easily you can make changes in our Changes To Your School Calendar instructions in our user guide.

Homeschool Tracking And Reporting: Additional, Helpful Steps

While not essential to begin planning your homeschool and family life, we know the reality of homeschool tracking and reporting requirements for homeschoolers. The good news is, Homeschool Planet is also equipped to help you track attendance and learning hours so you’ll know you are meeting your state’s homeschooling statutes.

6. Attendance Tracking

Attendance records can be easily tracked and printed from your Homeschool Planet account. See how straight forward it is to set up this feature in the User Guide entry titled Setting up Attendance Tracking.

7. Tracking Class And Activity Hours

Homeschool Planet can track and report class hours with a convenient clock icon that lets you see exactly which items you are tracking. To see the hours your student spends on academic work, activities (including chores!) and other events see the entry Getting Started Tracking Class and Activity Hours.

8. Creating Assignments

After creating a class, you also have the flexibility to create single and reoccurring assignments.

An Online Planner Designed To Meet Your Unique Family’s Needs

Now that you’ve got the basic set-up taken care of, we want to encourage you to explore all Homeschool Planet has to offer. This is just the beginning and there are a myriad of ways we can support you in your homeschool journey.

These 5 steps are just the beginning! Find out more about all the amazing features and benefits Homeschool Planet provides in our comprehensive user guide.

Want to see Homeschool Planet in action? Join Ashley from Gathered and Grounded as she plans her entire school year.